Farm share week 25

In this week's box:

• Turnip: 1.25 lbs
• Butternut squash: 3.25 lbs
• Green beans: 2 lbs
• Russet potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Sweet potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Carrots: 2.25 lbs
• Onions: 3.75 lbs
• Cranberries: 0.5 lb
• Mixed herbs: 0.1 lb

You can definitely tell that an effort was made this week to include items traditionally served at Thanksgiving, as indicated in this week's newsletter (PDF). Although I'm not aware of any dish that calls for 15 onions... Fortunately we're hosting dinner here this year, so I'll be able to use a bunch of this stuff.  For those keeping score at home, I now have 9 squashes in the refrigerator. However, hope is on the horizon -- we hear from our friends that they go through a squash a day at their house because their 1-year-old loves it, so I think they may be getting a Thanksgiving gift from us soon.

This is the last week of the farm share! But I'm planning to write a "reflections" post after Thanksgiving to sum everything up, so this isn't the end of the blog.

Farm share week 24

In this week's box:

• Acorn squash: 1.5 lbs
• Wheat berries: 2 lbs
• Golden beet: 0.75 lb
• Cabbage: 1.75 lbs
• Collard greens: 0.75 lb
• Cucumber: 0.75 lb
• Apples: 1.5 lbs
• Carrots: 2.75 lbs
• Potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Grape tomatoes: 1 pt

 Rats, I got another bag of wheat berries and I haven't used any of the bag I got over the summer! Time to start making some grain-based salads...

The inclusion of an avocado in last week's share, and the cucumber and grape tomatoes in this week's share, indicates that once again the farm is supplementing what it produces with produce obtained through exchange with farms further south. And there's only one week left in the farm share! After next week, a winter-spring program starts up, but I decided not to participate in that (it's a lot more money, and to be honest I'm looking forward to having a break from the constant onslaught of vegetables!). See this week's newsletter (PDF) for more details on the winter-spring program.

Starting to have a bit of a situation here with carrots and squash -- I'm now up to 7 squashes in the fridge (2 butternut and 5 acorn), and at least 5 pounds of carrots. I had to make an additional "crisper" out of a large tupperware to store all the carrots. Fortunately both carrots and squash last for quite a while in the fridge...

Farm share week 23

In this week's box:

• Carrots: 2 lbs
• Butternut squash: 3.75 lbs
• Avocado: 1 lb
• Turnip: 0.75 lb
• Lettuce: 1 lb
• Bok choi: 1 lb
• Chard: 1 lb
• Celeriac: 0.5 lb
• Parsley: 0.25 lb

Well, I can see now why the bok choi we had been getting was referred to as "baby bok choi," because this guy is enormous compared to them. But the butternut squashes are scaled down this week -- each about half as big as the ones we got a few weeks ago. Speaking of butternut squash, I made a great curried squash soup last week that was a big hit here among people who don't like squash. Here's the recipe.

The thing in the middle that looks like a pineapple gone wrong is celeriac, or celery root. I had seen it listed on this week's newsletter (PDF) but had forgotten and was like, what the hell is this thing? The top of it does actually smell like celery. I think a person is supposed to cut it up and roast it with other root vegetables.

No apples this week, bummer, although an avocado is a nice treat (it's via the East Coast produce sharing program that my farm belongs to). I wish they'd stop sending parsley every week or so -- how much parsley can a person eat, I ask you?

Farm share week 22

In this week's box:

• Apples: 1.75 lbs
• Bok choi: 0.75 lb
• Turnips: 1.75 lbs
• Sweet potatoes: 3 lbs
• White potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Parsnips: 1 lb
• Onion: 0.5 lb
• Kale: 0.5 lb

Well, this is certainly an autumnal selection of vegetables... Those things that look like a cross between a beet and a rutabaga are apparently "scarlet turnips," according to this week's newsletter (PDF). Growing up in Florida, I never once ate turnips or parsnips (to the best of my knowledge), and here they've been things I might have been served at a restaurant but I've never cooked them myself.  Happy to get some more sweet potatoes, although one of them is the size of my finger (!).

And, this week's apple variety is Macoun. :)

Farm share week 21

In this week's box:

• Carrots: 1.5 lbs
• Acorn squash: 1 lb
• Onions: 1.25 lbs
• Beets: 1.5 lbs
• Red leaf lettuce: 0.5 lb
• Napa cabbage: 1.75 lbs
• Collard greens: 1 lb
• Apples 2.75 lbs
• Parsley: 0.5

The red leaf lettuce is actually two junior-sized heads in one bag... cute and the perfect size to make a salad for two people. I love it! I wish all lettuce was small. According to this week's newsletter (PDF), it's "heirloom mini lettuce," hee. And the thing that looks like romaine lettuce is actually Napa cabbage.

The apples are Mutsu, which is a variety I learned about last year at the orchard where we picked apples -- the attendant suggested we try them. They're like Granny Smiths but without such a tough skin.

Farm share week 20

In this week's box:

• Squash: 1.75 lbs
• Sweet potatoes: 1.5 lbs
• Daikon: 1 lb
• Apples: 2 lbs
• Potatoes: 0.75 lb
• Bok choi: 1 lb
• Kale: 0.75 lb
• Lettuce: 0.75 lb
• Arugula: 0.5 lb
• Onions: 1 lb
• Green pepper: 0.25 lb

This week's squash is Kabocha, according to the newsletter (PDF). I made a curry out of one of the butternut squashes this week; neither of us really liked it, though -- Carl because it was too squashy, me because it didn't have enough flavor or variety (it was just a lot of squash, with some tofu).  If I make it again, I think I would halve the amount of squash and add potatoes or something else to give it some variety (I did add some broccoli, though).  And the amount of red curry paste called for in the recipe is woefully inadequate, even for me, who orders everything "mild" at Indian restaurants.

Interesting to get a piece of daikon radish before (that's the white thing in the bag on the left).  I've seen them whole before in Asian grocery stores, but not sure if I've ever eaten daikon before. And really happy to get sweet potatoes -- those are basically a staple of my diet, but I haven't been buying them in the store since we have so many white potatoes to get through. It'll be good to have sweet potatoes back in the mix again.

Farm share week 19

In this week's box:

• Butternut squash: 2.75 lbs
• Broccoli: 0.75 lb
• Apples: 2 lbs
• Leeks: 1 lb
• Potatoes: 3 lbs
• Kale: 0.5 lb
• Arugula: 0.5 lb
• Lettuce: 0.75 lb

Now that the weather is cooling down, we seem to be getting lettuce every week again. I guess salad season is back! As mentioned in this week's newsletter (PDF), broccoli is also a cool-weather crop -- we didn't get too much of it this week, but I hope we'll get more in future shipments.

MORE potatoes! It's like the potato famine in reverse here. But, more leeks! So, more potato leek sooop... I now have two butternut squashes plus the two acorn squashes to do something with. Carl doesn't like squash, so this may be a challenge. Maybe squash soup would be tolerable?

Farm share week 18

In this week's box:

• Carrots: 2.5 lbs
• Apples: 2 lbs
• Squash: 2.25 lbs
• Cabbage: 2.75 lbs
• Potatoes: 2 lbs
• Beets and greens: 1.25 lbs
• Lettuce: 0.75 lb
• Dandelion greens: 0.5 lb
• Parsley: 0.5 lb

It seems like we get a different variety of apples each week, which is great. According to this week's newsletter (PDF), these are Honey Crisp. And this week's squash is Acorn.

More potatoes, more carrots... fortunately they last forever in the fridge. I've never had dandelion greens, but am looking forward to trying them.

Farm share week 17

In this week's box:

• Corn: 4.25 lbs
• Onions: 1.25 lbs
• Squash: 3 lbs
• Apples: 2 lbs
• Leeks: 1.25 lbs
• Kale: 1 lb
• Salad greens: 0.5 lb
• Raspberries: 6 oz.

This was the first week where all the items didn't actually fit in the box! The ears of corn came separately, in a bag. (The woman who gave me my share at City Feed told me that each person was getting 6 ears of corn, and I only got 5, but considering we still have 3 ears in the fridge from the last time we got corn, I'm okay with being shorted an ear...)

It's exciting to get some more things that herald the coming of fall -- leeks and a squash, as well as a different variety of apples. According to this week's newsletter (PDF), these are Shamrock apples, which they say are similar to Granny Smiths. I don't generally like GS apples because the skin is very tough, and they can be a bit tart for my taste. But these are delicious -- they really taste just like apple pie, with a great combination of sweet and spicy (I don't know how an apple can taste like cinnamon, but these do). We've had a tradition of going apple picking in the fall for the past couple of years, but I'm not sure if we'll do it this year -- not only are we getting great apples from the farm share (and in manageable quantities, I might add), but I don't know where we'd store the picked ones this year, given that all our crisper space is otherwise occupied. (But I do love apple picking, and the place we go has the most incredible Golden Delicious apples...)

And these golden raspberries were really delicious. Please note the use of past tense... they didn't stick around too long!

Farm share week 16

In this week's box: 

• Carrots: 2 lbs
• Green peppers: 1.5 lbs
• Potatoes: 3 lbs
• Apples: 1.5 lbs
• Tomatoes: 1.25
• Callaloo: 0.75 lb
• Basil: 0.5 lb

These early Macintosh apples are really good -- the ones we got last week didn't hang around long in the fridge... And more basil means more pesto, hurray!  (Now that I know how easy it is to make pesto in the food processor, I want to make it all the time.)

The tomatoes we got this week are beautiful -- previously we'd been getting what they call "field tomatoes," which are your common alleycat tomatoes, but these are obviously heirloom (as confirmed in this week's newsletter). The red one is almost too pretty to eat!

Farm share week 15

In this week's box:

• Corn: 5 lbs
• Rainbow chard: 1.25 lbs
• Eggplant: 1 lb
• Tomatoes: 1.5 lbs
• Green pepper: 0.75 lb
• Apples!: 2 lbs
• Beets: 1 lb
• Onions: 1.25 lbs
• Carrots: 2.5 lbs
• Parsley: 0.5 lb

This was the biggest shipment to date -- 16.75 pounds! I haven't gotten around to cooking last week's corn yet, and now we have TEN ears of corn. That's a lot of corn, even for two people who really like corn!  Thinking of making a creamed corn dish.  Still with the eggplant and green pepper, although I notice that this week's green pepper is ripening into orange, which perhaps signals that the green pepper shipments will be ending soon.

I'm really excited to get the first of this season's apples -- they're early Macintoshes, according to this week's newsletter (PDF). I used to buy apples at the store every week and had an apple for an afternoon snack every day at work, but this year I've been trying to be more conscious about buying things that are in season. In case you thought apples grew on trees all year round in North America, keep in mind that most of the apples marked USA that you see in the stores have been sitting around in special climate-controlled warehouses for most of the year. (And also why you see apples from New Zealand for a lot of the year; you know, their fall is our spring and all that.)  So, this is all to say that I haven't had an apple in a while.  Abstaining from things not in season does make one appreciate them more when they ARE in season, I think.

Farm share week 14

In this week's box:

• Corn: 4 lbs
• Watermelon: 2.75 lbs
• Green pepper: 0.5 lb
• Tomato: 0.75 lb
• Garlic Onions: 0.5 lb
• Eggplant: 1.25 lbs
• Kale: 1 lb
• Bok choi: 0.5 lb
• Arugula 0.5 lb

I thought the shallots were actually garlic until I cut one open -- they have multiple small bulbs contained within the paper. But they're definitely onions.  (This week's newsletter [PDF] actually gives two possibilities -- red onions or shallots. But aren't shallots longer and narrower?)


Happy to see some corn again -- it's been a while.  But really, could do without MORE eggplant and green pepper, since Carl doesn't like them. I love both, but it's hard to eat it all myself! What I've been doing is slicing them up and roasting them while I'm cooking dinner, and then eating them as snacks. And earlier in the week I gave some green peppers to a work friend...

Farm share week 13

In this week's box:

• Watermelon: 3.25 lbs
• Beets: 1.25 lbs
• Cucumber: 1 lb
• Green pepper: 0.75 lb
• Tomato: 1 lb
• Salad greens: 0.75 lb
• Eggplant: 1.25 lb
• Callaloo: 0.75 lb
• Basil: 0.25

Here's this week's newsletter (PDF).

It turned out that keeping the basil with the stems in a container of water in the fridge did NOT keep it fresh any longer, so I think a big meal of something basil-related is in our future...

Happy to get another watermelon -- they're the perfect size to cut up and eat the whole thing standing over the sink. Only complaint is that they're full of seeds.

I now have FIVE green peppers to use up. Halp.

Farm share week 12

In this week's box:

• Watermelon: 4.5 lbs
• Eggplant: 2 lbs
• Green peppers: 1.25 lbs
• Lemon cucumbers: 0.75 lb
• Tomatoes: 1.5 lbs
• Collard greens: 1 lb
• Green beans: 1 lb
• Avocado: 1.5 lbs

 This week's newsletter (PDF) alerted members about the inclusion of avocados in the box -- avocados are certainly not native to this area, but the farm did some kind of tradeoff with a farmer in Florida for some of their own produce that is now out of season there. They asked for feedback and I'm sure they will get some negative responses from the hardcore locavores.  Myself, I love avocados, and this keeps me from having to buy one at the store. Also, this is the largest avocado I've ever seen! I'm used to getting the dark-skinned Haas variety that are about half this size (from California, I guess) -- these seem more similar to the ones I see at Latino markets and restaurants.

Happy to get collards this week instead of kale (the collards seem to last longer in the fridge, and it's a nice change, as much as I love kale!).  Also pleased to get a baby watermelon!  (And you'll notice that they didn't skimp on the rest of the stuff they put into the box because of the weight of the watermelon -- the total box weight is 13.25 lbs by my calculations.)

As you might remember, we got bunches of celery the past two weeks. I chopped them up the other night and as a result had a huge pile of celery greens. I posted a photo of them on Facebook and within a few hours had connected with a coworker whose two bunnies were more than happy to take the greens off my hands. Waste not, want not...

Farm share week 11

In this week's box:

• Corn: 1.75 lbs
• Celery: 1 lb
• Cucumbers: 1.75 lbs
• Eggplant: 1.5 lbs
• Green pepper: 1 lb
• Tomatoes: 1.5 lbs
• Tomatillos: 0.75 lb
• Canteloupe: 2.5 lbs
• Parsley: 0.5 lb
• Basil: 0.5 lb

This week's newsletter (PDF) announced the inclusion of another new item for me -- tomatillos.  They're used a lot in Mexican cooking, so I guess that means some enchiladas are in our future. :)

I learned this week that I've been storing my fresh herbs incorrectly. I thought they should go in perforated bags in the crisper like the other leafy things we get, but according to Joy of Cooking, that's only the case for herb leaves that aren't on the stem. If they're bunches of herbs still on the stem, they should be stored with their stems in water (like a bouquet), outside the crisper. Hoping this means that this parsley and basil will last longer... I'll keep you posted.

Remember last week, when I got a ton of stuff that I knew Carl wouldn't eat?  Well, it happened to be the annual picnic at work this week, and everyone was tasked to bring a salad or a dessert.  I love baking, so usually that would be a no-brainer for me, but I decided to veer off course this year and roast up some veggies instead. I sliced up beets, zucchini, squash, eggplant, and green pepper; marinated them on baking sheets in some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and roasted them at 375° for 30-40 minutes.  Cooled 'em, dumped 'em in a Tupperware, and brought to picnic. Came home with empty Tupperware, hooray!

Farm share week 10

In this week's box:

• Celery: 1.5 lbs
• Yellow squash: 2 lbs
• Tomatoes: 1 lb
• Green peppers: 1.25 lbs
• Kale: 0.75 lb
• Lettuce: 0.5 lb
• Lemon cucumbers: 1.75 lbs
• Eggplant: ... (apparently I forgot to weigh it)
• Currants: 6 oz

Super-excited to see the first of the tomatoes... I'm sure we'll be drowning in them soon enough, but nothing says late summer to me like tomatoes. The celery is interesting -- much darker green than the kind I'm used to seeing in the supermarket.  Speaking of celery, this week's box is full of things that Carl doesn't like -- eggplant, green pepper, squash, celery... not sure what I'm going to do with all this stuff.

I was reading this week's newsletter (PDF) and noticed that several of the recipes that are included have to do with vegetables that were in last week's box, rather than the usual recipes that are for the current week's box. I thought that was a good idea, because usually that's around the time when I start thinking, what am I going to do with all this stuff from last week?  Then I noticed that THREE of the recipes were written by my friend Jen! She lives in Arlington, on the other side of the city, and I had no idea that we were members of the same farm. Fun.

Halfway through the week, the farm sent out a special e-mail about the currants. I guess they were worried that people wouldn't know what to do with them!  They photograph beautifully, that's all I know...

Farm share week 9

In this week's box:

• Cucumbers: 1.5 lbs
• Corn: 1.5 lbs
• Green beans: 0.5 lb
• Yellow squash: 0.75 lb
• Pattypan squash: 1 lb
• Beets: 1.75 lbs
• Lettuce: 1 lb
• Kale: 0.75 lb
• Wheat berries: 1.25 lbs
• Basil: 0.5 lb

Excited to get fresh basil this week -- bought some tomatoes and fresh mozzarella to go with it! And it seems like every week we get a different variety of kale -- this week's has smaller leaves that are very thick, not at all like the big floppy leaves we've been getting lately. I loooove kale and never complain about getting it every week, unlike some things (I'm looking at you, lettuce).

This week's newsletter (PDF) included information on what to do with the wheat berries. (I've never had them before.) It sounds like they can be cooked the same way as any grain, and used in either sweet or savory dishes.

Farm share week 8

In this week's box:

• Corn: 2.5 lbs
• Taters: 1.5 lbs
• Zukes: 1.25 lbs
• Cukes (green): 1.75 lbs
• Lemon cucumbers: 1.75 lbs
• Kale: 0.75 lb
• Yellow squash: 1.5 lbs
• Lettuce: 0.75 lb
• Parsley: 0.25 lb
• Blueberries: 1 pint

I've had to start tuning out the quantity of potatoes we've been getting every week, because at least I know they'll last for a while. (I keep them in the fridge after an earlier failure with dry storage in the pantry as recommended.) More urgent is the matter of the cucumbers and zucchini we've been getting lately. I'm not sure how much more zucchini bread this world can take from me... As for cucumbers, I made tzatziki last week, and this week made a cucumber salad (chop up cucumbers and marinate in mixture of rice vinegar, toasted sesame seeds, and superfine sugar; chill and serve).  But the lemon cucumbers we got this week are a new variation -- I'd heard of them but never seen them before. Not exactly the kind of thing you find in the supermarket. One of them was actually damaged in shipping, so I cut off the bad part and ate the rest of it right away -- it still had the cucumbery taste, but was milder. (They just LOOK like lemons, they don't TASTE like them.) In the photo above, they're the pale yellow things directly behind the green cucumbers.

This week's farm newsletter (PDF) didn't indicate that there would be any berries included, so I decided to buy blueberries at Whole Foods. Of course when I picked up the farm share later the same day, it included some unannounced blueberries.  So, we did a taste test. The farm blueberries taste almost floral, while the WF bluebs are meatier in texture and blander in flavor. Both varieties are tasty in their different ways, and in fact, Carl couldn't distinguish which were from the farm share in a blind test. (We get up to such hijinks here, I know.)

Farm share week 7

In this week's box:

• Corn: 4.5 lbs (!)
• Cabbage: 2.25 lbs
• Taters: 1.5 lbs
• Kale: 1.25 lbs
• Cuke: 0.75 lb
• Zuke: 1 lb
• Arugula: 0.75 lb.
• Raspberries: 1 pint

Hey look, I remembered to weigh the stuff before I put it away! Actually what made me think of it was how HEAVY the box was this week compared to the past few weeks. According to this tally, the shipment this week is 12+ pounds. I think that's the heaviest yet! I can't believe how much bigger the ears of corn are compared to last week's runty specimens. Also, the kale leaves are ENORMOUS. I think this is called dinosaur kale (understandably). It looks a little prehistoric...

As you can see in this week's farm newsletter (PDF), more and more of each week's shipment is coming directly from Enterprise Farm, and almost everything is local (except for the potatoes this week). I have to say, this is one of the most interesting aspects of having a farm share -- knowing what's ripe and ready to pick each week in my local growing area.

Farm share week 6

In this week's box:

• Cucumbers (3)
• Corn on the cob (4, smallish)
• Zucchini (1)
• Yukon Gold taters (7)
• Callaloo
• Raspberries (1 pint)

Last week a friend said he was impressed that I always knew what the leafy greens were in each week's shipment. Generally I'm pretty good at distinguishing kale from chard, etc., but this week I was completely stumped by the bunch of greens we got. I referred back to the weekly newsletter from the farm (PDF), and discovered that it was callaloo. I only knew Callaloo as a literary journal of the African diaspora -- I guess I assumed it was named after some sort of gourd. But no, it's a green. (Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry maintains that callaloo is the dish, rather than the green itself, while the farm calls the green callaloo.)

The corn seems kind of runty -- I got some more robust corn earlier in the week from the supermarket (I know, I know... but it was "local corn" and sometimes you just crave something, you know?).  Will have to see how it compares taste-wise.

No lettuce this week, for the first time (yippity).  The newsletter alludes to the recent hot weather we've been having as not being good for the lettuce crops, which I suppose should make me sad, but, um, just happy to have a respite from salad.